Tarot cards are an ancient system of symbols, a seventy-eight-card deck of cards that appeared between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. In the modern world, Tarot cards are most often used for fortune telling.
Instructions
Step 1
Initially, the images on these cards had a complex astrological, occult and alchemical background, so the Tarot is traditionally associated with secret knowledge and riddles.
Step 2
The tarot deck can be divided into two parts. The first is the trump cards or major arcana. There are twenty-two of these cards. Each of them has an original drawing, allowing for many interpretations, and a unique name. All arcana are numbered, but the order of the cards and their names may differ in different decks. The second part of the deck is the minor arcana, usually there are fifty-six. The minor arcana are divided into four suits, each of which has fourteen cards. The suits are called wands, swords, cups and denarii. Each suit has an ace (or one), two, three and further up to ten, as well as several curly cards that bear special names: Page, Knight, Queen and King. Ace can be considered as low or high card.
Step 3
There are many types of decks, drawn in different styles. The most famous are the Egyptian Tarot - designed in the style of Ancient Egypt, the Marseille tarot - drawn in the style of France of the sixteenth century, the Visconti-Sforza Tarot - the oldest complete deck, which was created in the fifteenth century, the Ryder-White Tarot - drawn at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Step 4
In the twentieth century, a huge number of different designs of tarot decks appeared, so at present it is difficult to even just name the number of all existing decks. Most of them are variations on classic deck themes, with the Ryder-White Tarot leading the way. However, there are some very interesting thematic decks. If you wish, you can find erotic Tarot, Tarot of cats, Tarot of dragons, Tarot based on the legends of King Arthur, a very beautiful elven Tarot and much more. The principle of work with all decks is absolutely identical, and the values of the cards, depending on the drawings, do not change.
Step 5
Of course, there are many parallels between the tarot and ordinary playing cards. You can draw a direct correspondence between the suits of playing cards and the suits of the Tarot. It is believed that wands correspond to clubs, cups to hearts, swords to spades, denarii to tambourines. In addition, the number of minor arcana in general corresponds to the number of cards in the suits of playing cards, with the exception that there is one less figured cards in a regular deck (there is no knight). It is widely believed that it was the Tarot deck that was the "progenitor" of ordinary playing decks.
